My biggest problem with this is that it's wrong to focus solely or even primarily on the NSA. GCHQ may have a smaller budget but their spying is no less pernicious. I don't even know what the Chinese equivalent is, but I'm sure they have one, as do the KGused-to-be. Even the Germans who got so up in arms about Merkel's phone being bugged are out there trying to do the same things.

This is a structural problem, not a problem with one three-letter agency. Yes, the NSA's programs ought to be reined in but even if we were 100% successful against the NSA that would be like killing one roach in an infested kitchen. The kitchen needs scrubbing, needs holes plugged, needs ongoing maintenance. That, more than killing one roach, is what we ought to be working for.

So basically, the plan is just to complain to each other about how much it sucks?

How about writing to your congressperson on that day? How about sending lots of PGP (or whatever the state of the art is today) encrypted emails? How about putting a long string of trigger words in every email you send that day? How about sending letters of complaint to companies which are complicit with monitoring? How about writing a big fat check to the EFF?

You can always write or call your congressman and senator today. We need to raise money, big money, to get the legislation and behavior we require. In America money is speech and expression. We need to change that too.

My biggest problem with this is that it's wrong to focus solely or even primarily on the NSA. GCHQ may have a smaller budget but their spying is no less pernicious.

It's the same spying. The EU Echelon reports described how it works years ago: Because the NSA is legally restricted from spying on US citizens, they hand off their data to the GCHQ/NSA base at RAF Menwith Hill. GCHQ runs the keyword searches and then hands back the results.

That's why the Director of the NSA feels able to tell congress that they don't read Americans' e-mail messages. Technically they don't, GCHQ does. This arrangement is part of the UKUSA program, and also involves Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and recently a few other countries.

Sadly the Echelon reports were rubbished by NSA sockpuppets back when they came out, and it took the Edward Snowden leaks to confirm the important details about the scope of the surveillance and make people pay attention.

Yes - I agree it is a good day to write to MOC's and others. Spare them nothing. They need to understand!

You can criticize those who aren't out in the streets all you like - but this is about the internet, right?And, I will assume from your clueless commentary that you are not old enough to remember Kent State. Understand something - people died that day. And on other days, many others. Oh, sure. You think it won't be you - it'll be someone else, right? I promise you - it won't make you feel any better when you see the vids of it later. You'll cry. As we did when Kent State happened. There were no weenies back then. But there was no honor in dying, either. There was just...death.

But there was strong commitment. So maybe, rather than criticizing or making fun, you'll get some insight. Maybe, you'll realize that 'growing a pair' this time doesn't mean molotov cocktails. It means - do the unthinkable. Say what you mean, out loud. Use your real name. Use you real email. They can't even consider coming after us all when we act together like that. Don't allow them to make you afraid. Let them make you mad! And then, say so!

So basically, the plan is just to complain to each other about how much it sucks?

EDIT: Please disregard this if you were referring to some of the posters in this thread and not the global day of action.

Um, no. Try reading the link from the BB post next time.

... if you work at a tech company or startup, lobby the management "

Also, direct action protests are just one of many critical strategies that work. You can educate yourself on this here: Hacking Politics: History of the SOPA fight - http://craphound.com/?p=4781

Also, if you scroll down to point 4, they say to be creative and do whatever you can. This includes spreading information via memes, organizing events, building websites, etc.

How about writing to your congressperson on that day? How about sending lots of PGP (or whatever the state of the art is today) encrypted emails? How about putting a long string of trigger words in every email you send that day? How about sending letters of complaint to companies which are complicit with monitoring? How about writing a big fat check to the EFF?

Those are all great ideas for the most part, just wish you could have suggested them without being so dismissive in the first place. That said, thanks for your ideas.

If you go to the link from the BB post and scroll to the bottom they suggest doing anything you can. (See the "be creative" part)

Please check out the part where they ask for suggestions in the "tell us about it" link. Please remit your suggestions there as well.

In the meantime, the rest of us will try to get something accomplished.

Thank you! It's funny how all the naysayers slither out each time anything like this tries to get started and then after success they quietly crawl back under their rocks. Pretty pathetic.

Of course, many of these same naysayers say that SOPA was unsuccessful because it inevitably gets re-introduced in other ways. However, the SOPA fight was very successful despite the unhelpful naysayers. Of course it's being re-introduced in other ways. That's what we expected. That's why struggles for civil rights are called "struggles". It's a never-ending process against inevitable corruption, greed and bad actors. It's not a nice, clean video game with a black and white ending. It's an ongoing struggle that we fight for and that's our human condition. It takes fortitude, but many of us will never give up... ever.

The pathetic naysayers who lack fortitude and courage want to project their own failings on others to make themselves feel better. Fortunately, we fight despite their lack of encouragement, infantile dismissiveness, divisive pedantry and focus on pointless semantics (while often focusing on pipe dream platitudes ) and trite, anti-solidarity nitpicking. Fuck'em.

"The perfect is the enemy of the good," is never going to sink in with the critical mass of autism-spectrum nerds who make up about 25% of the internet. It's tough, because I'm sure this is also the most effective NSA-sponsored trolling post, so you never really would be able to tell which is which.